April Rain
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: Oneshot. Mei Sakura had always disliked rainy days. But getting caught in a downpour with Kotaro Inugami, she begins to think she might have been wrong. -Mei/Kotaro-


Disclaimer: I do not own Negima. That belongs to Ken Akamatsu! My first Negima story.

I thought up this idea, bizarrely, when thinking about umbrellas. Also because it's done nothing but RAIN all month. Also, because this pairing is cute and fits in with the theme. (Sakura Mei- Spring.)

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Sometimes, Mei Sakura wondered why she put up with Takane Goodman.

Tramping miserably on the forest path, both arms weighed down with shopping, Mei sighed to herself. The bags were cutting into her fingers a little, and for some irritating reason, they continued to bump into her knees with each step she took. Takane onee-sama had insisted that Mei go out and buy the shopping, despite the fact that the Weather Forecast had promised a large bout of April Showers. Possibly even a storm.

And Mei _hated_ storms. Almost as much as she hated the rain, in fact.

It wasn't even so much because of the thunder and lightning- though, she was a tiny bit afraid of it. But it was more the fact that storms had to be so...wet.

Water simply spelt trouble for Mei. For one thing, there was the whole problem that she had never been taught to swim. That was one major problem right there. Mei made a point of avoid large bodies of water if she could avoid it, for fear of falling in. Takane onee-sama often told Mei how clumsy she was, and Mei was at no position to argue with that. After all, that was practically _asking_ to have some kind of mishap!

Then there was the whole problem with flying. (On the exceptionally rare occasion that Mei was permitted to fly.) Flying was a tricky business in its own right, but when you relied on a broomstick to get about, flying in the rain was downright impossible. It made the broom become slow and waterlogged, plus navigating your way through pesky droplets of water flying in front of your face was not a pleasant task.

Mei shivered at the memory of once when she had to fly along with Nutmeg-chan along the coast. It had been a miserable, stormy day, almost night-like since the sky was so thick with clouds, and Mei almost fell into the sea when a huge blast of wind came out of nowhere, sending up a huge splash that tipped the front of her broomstick down. It had been lucky that Nutmeg-chan had managed to blast away the water and pull Mei to safety just in time, but unfortunately it had been sufficiently bad enough to give Mei a rotten cold for about a fortnight after that.

And then, it was the fact that the rain made her fire magic totally useless. Mei had never experienced this problem with she was fighting, since she and Nutmeg-chan had fought together for a long time, so they could co-ordinate their fire and water attacks perfectly without getting in each other's way. But when it was rainy, the fire kept fizzling out into smoke before Mei could draw breath from her incantation.

_"But,"_ Mei reasoned with herself, _"Onee-sama's counting on me! A little rain never hurt anybody, right?"_

Then Mei felt a speck of water land on her arm.

"Oh, no!" she gasped, shooting a quick, furtive glance at the sky. It remained deceptively bland and grey, but Mei could see the thick, waterlogged clouds looming ominously overhead. Biting her lip, Mei hurried on, trying to pretend that the small droplets landing on her would go away as quickly as they had come.

Naturally, it didn't.

Almost as though it was offended at being ignored, the clouds decided to finally give way and unleash the rain. It did not rain, it poured.

* * *

"EEK!" squawked Mei, her rapid walk breaking out into a trot, then into a run. But unluckily for the pyromancer, the rain was faster, and soon Mei found herself stranded underneath a frail cherry blossom tree, watching in horror as the rain cascaded down from the heavens so quickly that it looked like a thousand fat needles were falling from the clouds, bouncing up against the slushy, muddy ground before falling back down, making huge puddles appear rapidly in the uneven dirt road.

"Onee-sama's going to be furious!" wailed Mei to nobody in particular, realising that she had dropped the two bags of shopping quite a bit ago, and now she had wasted money on soggy, wet food. No use to anybody. Mei felt a knot of dread tighten in her stomach. One at the prospect of just how annoyed Takane onee-sama was going to be. The second, and more immediate worry...

The cherry blossom tree she was currently standing under didn't look like it could take much more rain.

Mei felt her knees crumple beneath her, and she sank to the ground, ignoring the dampness of the grass soaking into her shins. Burying her face into her hands, Mei let out a frightened moan as she distinctly heard a crack of thunder.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

Mei jumped at the voice. Looking up, she actually had to physically put her hand over her mouth to stop it from falling open in surprise.

Kotaro stared at Mei, a look of confusion painted on his face. Mei wasn't sure whether she should be more shocked- after all, what on earth was Kotaro doing here? Or embarrassment that he was seeing her in such a state! He was standing just underneath the feeble canopy of the blossom tree. Rainwater glistened on his jacket and hair, and had Mei not been so distracted by his sudden appearance, she would have noted that his dog-like ears were pricked up. He seemed almost as surprised to see her as she was him.

"K-Kotaro-kun." Mei stammered, weakly. "I was just...um...-"

But Mei was spared to finishing her answer when another boom of thunder shook through the air, prompting a particularly fast rush of more rain. Mei gasped, hoping that the rain was not going to get so heavy it turned into hail. Kotaro glanced up at the sky, then properly to Mei.

"You're soaked through!" Kotaro exclaimed, pointing to Mei, apparently disregarding the fact that he was as well. "Come on, let's go somewhere more sheltered, okay?"

"Y-yes!" stammered Mei, accepting Kotaro's outstretched hand. She noted (whilst turning slightly pink) that his hand was very warm. Or perhaps that was simply due to the fact that this blasted rain had caught her totally unawares and she was very cold as well as being drenched. Kotaro and Mei hurried along, slipping down into a thick undergrowth of bushes, their leaves almost pointing directly upwards, since tall trees loomed over them, fat leaves spread out as well to catch as much sun as possible.

Of course, right now they were catching nothing but rain. Making the perfect, if temporary, shelter for the two mages.

Squatting on the dry ground, Mei pressed a hand to her abdomen, trying hard to catch her breath. Kotaro was doubled over, hands on his knees, also panting quite hard. When their breathing returned to normal, a certain air of awkwardness suddenly bloomed between them. Mei averted her eyes from Kotaro, who was sitting down and determinably looking in the opposite direction. The only sound was the rhythmic, steady fall of the persistent rain. But eventually, the silence began to get to be too much.

"So...what _were_ you doing out here, anyway?" Kotaro started, apparently talking to the bracken bush sitting beside him.

"Onee-sama just asked me to go pick up some...supplies." Mei answered; nervously hedging around the fact she had got so worked up about a little shopping and rain.

"Isn't she that stripper girl from the Martial-Arts Tournament?" Kotaro pondered, sounding surprised.  
"Onee-sama is not a stripper!" squealed Mei, a great burst of embarrassment on her sempai's behalf thudding through her. Though, deep down, she was quite grateful that Kotaro had not remembered any wardrobe malfunctions on her behalf. Kotaro merely shrugged, apparently misunderstanding Mei's sudden silence. Mei hoped that Takane onee-sama was not going to get stuck with such an undignified reputation- it would just kill her.

Then Mei remembered that seeing her in a vulnerable position wasn't exactly new for Kotaro- After all, he had saved her from drowning once. Then, with a sudden feeling of boldness, Mei raised her head and piped up,

"Say, why were you out here, Kotaro-kun?"

To Mei's intense surprise, Kotaro actually _blushed_. With a hint of a grumble in his tone, Kotaro addressed the bracken again.

"I was scoutin' the area that's all. Then I heard something smash and went to investigate."

Mei stared at him. Did that mean...he had actually been _looking_ for her? Biting her lip, Mei quickly looked away, feeling her cheeks grow hot with a sudden rush of embarrassment. Then Kotaro spoke again, snapping her out of it.

"How come you looked so upset back there?" demanded Kotaro, turning to look at Mei and looking adorably cute for a moment as he fixed her with a curious look. "You were practically crying."

"I was not!" defended Mei, but Kotaro's expression remained sceptical and Mei deflated very slightly. Looking at her knees and reddening with humiliation, Mei mumbled,

"Um, well, I'm a bit scared of storms. And I really don't like rain. S-so, I dropped the shopping on my way back and now Takane onee-sama's going to be really angry with me. She's been under a lot of pressure lately, and I can't even handle a simple task like getting the shopping!"

Kotaro looked at Mei, his head cocked to one side. Mei blinked- it was quite unlike Kotaro to be this quiet after hearing something so ridiculous. But he didn't say anything, he just carried on looking at Mei as though she were a mildly interesting television program.

"What is it?" Mei asked, staring back at Kotaro, her body language looking rather uncomfortable. "Do-do I have something stuck on my face?"  
"Nah." answered Kotaro, shaking his head. "But, ya know, you don't need to worry about the rain and stuff. If you go falling in water again, I'll save ya."

Mei went so red that for a moment she thought the sun had briefly come out and shone directly onto her face, and she froze out of simply being unable to think of how to react. But Kotaro seemed oblivious of Mei's sudden temporary lack of speech or movement as he looked up at the canopy of leaves above.

"I think it's stopped."

Mei looked up. The two mages stayed quiet for a couple of minutes, listening hard. Kotaro was indeed right- there was absolutely no sound coming from above the leafy den, except for a few birds happily tweeting outside. Mei smiled for the first time that day- Finally, a little sunlight!

The pair quickly scrambled up the slope, Kotaro moving considerably faster then Mei due to his dog-like agility, but Mei simply burnt away any problematic branches and leaves, happy that she could finally use her fire magic again.

"Woah. Bright." Kotaro commentated, shielding his eyes from the sudden glare of the sun with his slowly drying jacket sleeve. Mei spread her arms out, feeling the warm sunlight on her bare arms.

"I'm so glad the rain's stopped!" Mei sighed happily, spinning around on her heel. Kotaro threw her an odd look, but Mei was too preoccupied to notice. The Inugami shrugged and began to set off down the forest path.

"By the way." Kotaro suddenly said as Mei caught up to him. Mei looked at him, confused. Kotaro, who hands his hands in his pockets and his head down slightly, suddenly looked at her and grinned.

"Ever heard of an umbrella?"

Mei looked at him for a couple of seconds, while Kotaro stared back. Then, almost at the same time, they started to laugh.

* * *

A couple of days later, Mei found herself playing errand-girl for Takane onee-sama once again. Incidentally, when Mei returned from her unsuccessful shopping trip, preparing for Takane onee-sama to yell at her, she found her sempai slumped over her desk, snoring softly. When Takane woke up, she had completely forgotten that she had sent Mei shopping at all.

"I'm here to pick up a package for Takane Goodman?" Mei announced to the clerk behind the counter. She knew him well enough- He was one of Takane's friends.

"Ah, Mei-Chan! Here it is." Grinned the clerk, pushing a small brown envelope to Mei. Mei picked it up, but just as she turned to go, she saw another package being pushed under the slot.

"I thought it was just the one package?" inquired Mei, staring at the short, fat parcel.  
"Oh, this one is for you." Explained the clerk, smiling behind the glass panel. "Got it a couple of days ago."

"Uh…thank you."

Mei bowed quickly, grabbing the second parcel and hurrying away.

Outside, she stowed Takane's package in her bag, smiling slightly as she pulled shut the zip. Then she returned her attention to the mysterious parcel. Picking at one of the badly cello-taped corners, Mei managed to prise it open.

A small green umbrella fell to the dirt path with a soft thud. A note fluttered down alongside it. Bending swiftly, Mei picked up the note, which read, in slightly smudged ink:

_For rainy days. K.I._

Mei picked up the umbrella, slowly undoing the Velcro holding it closed. As it unfurled, Mei smiled with delight. It was decorated with tiny, pink petals and pawprints.

And as a sudden speck of moisture landed on the fabric, Mei smiled and put up the umbrella.

And as the rain continued to fall, Mei found that she didn't mind it in the slightest.

* * *

That last bit was a bit improvised, but I think it tied together well.

Reviews are sparkly and cool!


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